Menifee Valley seventh-grader takes spelling bee

First-place winner Heather Nguyen and second-place finisher Taryn Watson stand on stage with the trophies they received Thursday night at the Menifee Union School District spelling bee.
— Hayne Palmour IV

First-place winner Heather Nguyen and second-place finisher Taryn Watson stand on stage with the trophies they received Thursday night at the Menifee Union School District spelling bee.
— Hayne Palmour IV

The 12-year-old prefers her PE and math classes at Menifee Valley Middle School to English courses, and one day she’d like to become a doctor.

That doesn’t mean she was at any kind of disadvantage Thursday night at the Menifee Union School District’s spelling bee at Hans Christensen Middle School.

Quite the contrary, actually.

“I practiced a lot,” she said. “I would write each of the words 10 times each in my notebook.”

The practice paid off.

Heather navigated her way through 11 rounds -- and just one misspelling -- to fend off Evans Ranch Elementary School fifth-grader Taryn Watson to win her first spelling bee, which came during her third year of participating in the competition. She will go on to compete in the Riverside County contest next month.

“It feels good; it’s my third year,” Heather said while holding onto her trophy after surviving her one mistake in an otherwise stress-free round for the seventh-grader.

For six rounds, Heather breezed through words like “taj” and “etymology” with little break in her rhythm as little sisters Sarah, 7, and Leslie, 6, pumped their fists in the crowd with each correct answer.

Then, with just her and 10-year-old Taryn left standing, the spelling master dropped “aristocracy” on Heather and suddenly her eyes darted back in forth in search of the correct first letter. She settled on “e” and figured she’d lost the competition when the judges flashed three red cards at her.

“I thought she was going to win,” Heather said.

Taryn nearly did, too.

But after swiftly spelling “consensus,” Taryn tripped up on “nirvana” for her first mistake of the competition and the bee rolled into the decisive 10th round.

Heather immediately hit on “desperado,” Taryn missed on “filibuster” and Heather closed the bee out with a swift spelling of “paprika.”

Afterward, Taryn was quick to congratulate the older winner.

“I felt very nervous, but very happy that I got second place,” said Taryn, who will be an alternate at the March 20 county competition at the Moreno Valley Conference and Recreation Center.

Two-and-a-half hours earlier, 54 of the district’s top spellers between the fourth and eighth grades sat side by side until words such as “sufficiently,” “forensics” and “quantitative” cut that group in half.

Five students remained after the fifth round, when Ilo Kelly of Callie Kirkpatrick Elementary School breezed through “subterfuge” as a good portion of the adults in the crowd wrinkled their noses and scratched their heads over the word, which means a deceptive stratagem or device.

Ilo made it to the final three but he was eliminated on “monotonous” four rounds before Heather closed out the competition.

Admittedly, Heather was just as excited as she was nervous about the chance to go up against the county’s best spellers.

“I want to go,” she said, “but I don’t want to win because it’s hard.”

Of course, her father, Tuan Nguyen, said Heather battled the same kind of nerves before winning the district competition.

“She was very nervous before,” Nguyen said. “I just sat with her this morning and told her to enjoy herself.”